City of the Dead (also known as George
A. Romero's City of the Dead and The Living Dead:
City of the Dead[1]) is a
canceled first person
shootervideo
game, based on George A. Romero's Dead Series of Zombie films. The game was
intended for release on the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC platforms[2], but no
further details or announcements have been made about the game
since its showing at E32005. It is presumed cancelled due to the
financial constraints of publisher Hip Interactive. Originally
announced in December 2004, it was
due for release in March 2006[3].

Story

City of the Dead was set on a fictional island called
"Ningun Futuro". A zombie outbreak occurs on the island after a
series of secret military tests on cadavers backfires.

Reports had said there would be no reference in the game to Dawn of the Dead (because
the 2004 version ends with the survivors winding up in a
zombie-ridden island), one of the more popular films in the
Dead Series due to copyright issues with the MKR Group who hold
the rights to the film.

Development

Hip Interactive announced on December 15, 2004 that they had
made an agreement with Living Dead Productions to produce a series
of games based on Romero's films, with City of the Dead
being the first to be developed and released. The company also
expected to develop games based directly on the movies Night of the Living Dead and
Dawn of the Dead[4].

Before the cancellation, it was announced that Tom Savini, make-up artist
and regular actor in the Dead Series, would be providing
the voice and likeness of a character in the game. The character
would have been William "Red" McLean, a supporting character that
later becomes playable himself.

Actual gameplay was shown at E3 2005 (but was not
playable by those attendance.) Those that saw the presentation have
commented that City of the Dead contained high levels of
violence, blood and gore, to the point of excess.[5]